Articles
Cultural Considerations / Symbols / Icons
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Cross-Cultural Training and Localization
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| Author: |
Cyrus Carter |
| Summary: |
Whether your organization has a vision for taking its first steps into the global arena or is an established veteran, many companies are seeking new and more effective approaches to broaden their reach and build relationships in foreign markets... |
| Published: |
3/22/08 |
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Using Symbols and Icons in Localization
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| Author: |
Yves Lang |
| Summary: |
Products designed for global markets have come to rely on the use of icons and symbols to communicate effectively with international markets. This practice has increased throughout all product assets including: user interfaces, packaging and labeling, documentation, and marketing materials. Through these graphical communications, developers and graphic designers are creating new sets of communications mediums that are transcending traditional verbal language, creating a set of localization issues that are not merely linguistic, but semiotic... |
| Published: |
11/14/05 |
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Marketing Communications, Culture, and Localization
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| Author: |
Yves Lang |
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Woody Allen once said, "Eighty percent of success is showing up." As a business person I absolutely agree, and I am certain that global business leaders would agree in regards to their international business efforts. As a localization professional however, I quickly attribute the remaining “20% of success” to “being prepared” with quality products and communications that reflect the unique wants and needs of local target markets in terms of culture, language and user requirements... |
| Published: |
8/29/05 |
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Documentation Localization
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Documentation Localization Process Tune-Up
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| Author: |
ENLASO's Consulting and Training Division |
| Summary: |
Evaluate your documentation translation and localization processes for atrophy caused by the continuous execution of "this is how we have always done it" practices. Working closely (onsite) with many companies with global strategies of various levels, I notice that globalization professionals often focus on their own headlights and not down the road... |
| Published: |
9/14/07 |
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Best Practices for Successful Documentation Localization
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| Author: |
ENLASO's Consulting and Training Solutions Division |
| Summary: |
There are many things a localization professional can do to reduce localization costs. Simple, logical steps that involve intelligent use of page geometry and common document elements will lead to substantial cost savings and shortened project delivery schedules... |
| Published: |
6/25/06 |
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Text Expansion and Localized Documentation Design
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| Author: |
ENLASO's Consulting and Training Solutions Division |
| Summary: |
A technical writer's understanding of the project's globalization strategy is critical in defining style guidelines to accommodate future translations. A critical ingredient in establishing style guides or templates is the understanding of text expansion as a result of language translation and the successful use of document real estate... |
| Published: |
6/25/06 |
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Multilingual Flash Production
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| Author: |
Brooks Kline |
| Summary: |
In the past few years Macromedia Flash has matured into a localization-friendly authoring environment, vastly increasing its power to create and deliver multilingual media content. This article is an effort to suggest an efficient methodology for handling Flash localization projects using version MX 2004 and higher. |
| Published: |
2/19/06 |
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Games Localization
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Guest Article: Behind the Scenes – Localizing a Word Game
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| Author: |
Matt Decker |
| Summary: |
This guest article was authored by Matt Decker, founder of Artifex Consultants. Matt has over a decade of experience in localization and translation. After his last position as casual games Localization Manager for an international publisher, Matt turned his attention to assisting casual games developers... |
| Published: |
5/8/08 |
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Graphics Localization
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How to Economize When Localizing Graphics
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| Author: |
ENLASO's Consulting and Training Solutions Division |
| Summary: |
Technical documentation, marketing materials, websites and software generally have graphical assets that need to be localized. As important as they are to the meaning of these communication portals, graphics often create additional challenges to the localization process... |
| Published: |
11/20/04 |
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Internationalization
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Top 10 Internationalization Tips
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| Author: |
Adam Asnes, CEO and President of Lingoport |
| Summary: |
There are two kinds of software internationalization you can refer to – built in to the product from the start, and performed on existing code. The kind of internationalization (i18n) this article invokes isn’t the sort that’s designed into a product right from conception. That is less common, though the pull of global markets is changing that tide. |
| Published: |
3/12/08 |
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Interpretation
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Interpretation: The Localization Industry's Secret Weapon
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| Author: |
Yves Lang |
| Summary: |
Having the distinguished opportunity of being part of the language services industry for the past 15 years, I have had the pleasure of witnessing the industry outgrow the business service description of word-for-word language translation. In fact, the concept of language services rightfully matured to become a respected player in nearly every global industry... |
| Published: |
11/14/06 |
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ISO / Quality Assurance / Testing
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Ensuring Quality Through In-Country Validation
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| Author: |
Liesl Leary |
| Summary: |
quality localization processes should always incorporate a validation step by an in-country representative of the client. In-country review validation allows clients to provide input on company-specific terminology, target audience, technical specifications of products on the target market... |
| Published: |
5/5/05 |
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Quality Programs in Localization Environments
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| Author: |
Yusuke Kirimoto |
| Summary: |
In localization, quality frequently becomes a product of its environment—an afterthought in the development cycle. Quality assurance steps must be incorporated at every milestone of a global project for a localization vendor to successfully deliver a localized product that meets the expectations of both the client and especially the target markets. Indeed quality is subjective and relative, therefore establishing shared quality objectives and goals is critical to the success of any quality localization process... |
| Published: |
1/14/05 |
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Lifesciences and Medical Localization
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Regulatory Language Requirements and the IVDD
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| Author: |
Yves Lang |
| Summary: |
Sustaining competitive advantage within the medical device industry involves a global product strategy that recognizes the European market's substantial global market share. Estimated at 30% of the global medical device market, the European community poses increasing regulatory challenges for medical device manufacturers. Regulations controlling the manufacturing, marketing and usage of medical devices in the EU are forcing manufacturers to incorporate language translation and localization into global development strategies as individual Member States demand product information in the language of the local user... |
| Published: |
8/5/05 |
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Localization Project Management
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Localization Project Management Best Practices
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| Author: |
Mark Rogers |
| Summary: |
A great Localization Project Manager and a successful rower on a crew team share many positive qualities. Team members in the sport of rowing maintain a mindset for success, communicate with ease, strive for balance, and motivate their team for continual improvement.... |
| Published: |
11/20/07 |
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Okapi Framework: Changing the Localization Software Environment Through an Open Source Platform of Extendibility and Interoperability
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| Author: |
Yves Lang, Vice President, Sales & Marketing / CSO, ENLASO Corp. |
| Summary: |
In competitive business environments of continuous change and strategic adaptation, it is inevitable to witness the advancement of only a few technologies that ultimately stall at their own limitations. For years, the language technology industry has been controlled by its own acceptance of a few solutions with inherent limitations of long-term extendibility and interoperability. Without generally accepted standards, a polarization of development processes has occurred, with two-ton gorillas cornering the translation and localization industry, and well intentioned grass-root efforts responding with dozens of ineffective over-specialized solutions... |
| Published: |
8/27/06 |
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Marketing Localization
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Patent / Legal / Into-English Translations
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Translation for Information Purposes: When Quality is Challenged by Time and Cost
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| Author: |
John Watkins |
| Summary: |
The translation/localization paradigm of quality, cost, and turnaround is generally discussed with the assumption that quality is the most critical element. The foundations of internationalization alone imply that quality is a necessity from the earliest of global product development efforts. Sometimes however, the "darker side" of our industry's paradigm—cost and turnaround—reflects the minimal needs of a project. This misunderstood event is what localization professionals refer to as "translation for information" purposes... |
| Published: |
4/19/06 |
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Software Localization
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A Quick Take on What to Consider When Preparing For an OS X Software Localization Project
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| Author: |
ENLASO's Consulting and Training Division |
| Summary: |
In 1999 Apple released a new operating system (OS) built on BSD Unix called OS X. Apple completely rebuilt the Macintosh OS and chose BSD Unix as the underlying system because it is more stable, powerful and even easier for software development. OS X is also well suited for localization and translation. Some languages directly supported by OS X are Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Arabic, Thai, Hebrew, Russian and Greek (among others). By providing support for a wide range of languages and dialects, OS X also increases demand for software translation globally... |
| Published: |
4/18/06 |
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Spanish Translation and Localization
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Marketing to the Hispanic Market
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| Author: |
John Watkins |
| Summary: |
In the localization industry—or at least in the rhetoric of articles discussing best practices—the perspective and focus is typically that of a domestic company or product entering international markets. As an industry, we are saturated with associations and highly technical standards that primarily focus on the implications of entering foreign markets. However in doing so, we’ve overlooked a significant marketing and localization trend in our own domestic market: marketing to Hispanic communities... |
| Published: |
6/17/06 |
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Terminology / Glossary / Style Guide / Translation Memory
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Translating Translation Memory into Global Success
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| Author: |
Liesl Leary, Senior Localization Strategist, ENLASO Corp. |
| Summary: |
ENLASO helps clients go global with faster time-to-market, reduced costs and improved quality through high quality language and technology solutions. A common practice that affords ENLASO the ability to share these real world solutions is the effective use of Translation Memory... |
| Published: |
1/28/07 |
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Terminology in Localization
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| Author: |
Yves Lang, Vice President, Sales & Marketing / CSO, ENLASO Corp. |
| Summary: |
Thousands of languages, millions of words, regional, dialectical and technical variations, human language is a vastly complex and messy medium of communication. In a world in which your boss and everyone else seems to want a piece of you, or at least of your time, are issues related to Terminology Management really something you want to deal with? Will they simplify your life, ease your stress levels, save you time, control your budget? Well, actually, given a chance, the answer is YES! |
| Published: |
7/24/06 |
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Translating Multilingual Glossaries into Revenue
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| Author: |
Liesl Leary, Senior Localization Strategist, ENLASO Corp. |
| Summary: |
Glossaries, like vaccinations, ensure the health of your localization investment and prevent some nasty disorders from ever occurring. But even though conventional wisdom holds that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," many localization professionals miss the value that glossaries and a sound glossary management philosophy provide. To put this in perspective, imagine the consequences of not vaccinating your child. It is possible that said child may not contract any serious maladies before surviving to adulthood, but the chances are equally good that you may invite some long-term permanent damage... |
| Published: |
2/27/05 |
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Wireless / Mobile Localization
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Localization of Wireless and Mobile Technologies
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| Author: |
Liesl Leary, Senior Localization Strategist, ENLASO Corp. |
| Summary: |
The wireless industry is a rapidly proliferating and evolving global environment. Maintaining international competitive advantage in this relatively new industry demands an enterprise localization strategy that not only meets the requirements of local users, but also maintains interoperability with different technologies and manufacturers — while at the same time remaining scalable, efficient, reliable and secure... |
| Published: |
4/6/06 |
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XML and Localization
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XML I18N with Internationalization Tag Set
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| Author: |
Yves Savourel |
| Summary: |
As XML is used more and more for storing, transporting and manipulating data and content, it is becoming important to make sure XML applications consider any internationalization issues. The Internationalization Tag Set Working Group (ITS) is the latest effort of the W3C Internationalization Activity in this area... |
| Published: |
10/18/06 |
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Migrating to XML in a Localization Environment
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| Author: |
Maxwell Hoffmann |
| Summary: |
Sure, they work for now, but are your documentation systems clinging to yesterday's solutions? Perhaps it's time to consider migrating to an XML solution? Conversion of legacy systems to a single source system can result in immediate cost and time-to-market savings of 50%. |
| Published: |
11/10/05 |
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Using XML For Localization
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| Author: |
Yves Savourel |
| Summary: |
XML is one of the safest, most powerful and flexible ways to store, manipulate, localize and present data in different languages. With the vast array of internationalization features and companion technologies, XML provides many advantages in translation and localization projects... |
| Published: |
8/28/05 |
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Miscellaneous
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Globalizing Your Revenue Stream
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| Author: |
Chris Raulf |
| Summary: |
International sales are integral to fueling company growth. As your domestic markets become saturated, finding new markets with less competition offers increased revenue growth and profit potential. In fact, pursuing a global customer base can be less challenging than driving domestic growth in a saturated market... |
| Published: |
3/23/08 |
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Language and the Customer Experience
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| Author: |
Liesl Leary, Senior Localization Strategist, ENLASO Corp. |
| Summary: |
When was the last time you filled out a customer loyalty survey in another language? The answer is “probably never”. The U.S. language hegemony is a result not only of being the world’s most dominant player in economics, but also of the fortunate coincidence that the former dominating player, England, also spoke the same language. Back in those days, we expected customers to learn English or we just didn’t care about them... |
| Published: |
12/8/06 |
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A Brief Overview of Character Encodings
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| Author: |
Brooks Kline |
| Summary: |
The ability to recognize, understand, and migrate among different character encodings is an essential skill in localization engineering. As this knowledge comprises the technical basis of any localization project, it is important for localization professionals to have a good grasp of the subject. This article provides a basic introduction to character encoding... |
| Published: |
12/7/06 |
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Best Practices: Taking Your Certification Examination Process to a Global Audience
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| Author: |
Judith Soloduk |
| Summary: |
Education, qualification and certification are the goals of most certifying boards working with professionals around the world in all industries. Successful certification should not be dependent on fluency in English; due to our expanding global economy, the majority of potential candidates for your exams may eventually have no fluency in English whatsoever! Localizing your certification exam into key target languages greatly expands your pool of customers and helps increase the number of experts certified in your area of expertise on a global basis... |
| Published: |
10/6/06 |
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A Low- Risk Approach to International Expansion
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| Author: |
Oystein Konsmo |
| Summary: |
Expanding into global markets is an exciting and rewarding process for growing technology companies. When it is done properly, it will lead to higher profit margins, wider recognition of the company's technology and, ultimately, a higher market value for the enterprise... |
| Published: |
6/2/05 |
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It's All About Customer Focus
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| Author: |
Richard Ishida |
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A week or so ago, I listened to a very interesting program on the UK's BBC Radio 4 called "Too Much Stuff". It was making the point that the business environment has significantly changed now that we are in the 21st Century, due to over-capacity on the production side. Whereas twenty years ago new technology such as a printed circuit board could give IBM a 10-12 year competitive advantage, or a monitor could be competitively manufactured for 3 years.... |
| Published: |
8/18/04 |
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LISA: Nexus for Companies Going Global
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| Author: |
Rebecca Ray |
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CEOs overwhelmingly believe that revenue growth is their number one priority: four out of five CEOs (83%) now believe that revenue growth is the most important path to boosting financial performance over the next three years. And what do they see as the two key drivers for this growth? New and differentiated products and services (nearly two-thirds) and new markets (55%)... |
| Published: |
4/2/04 |
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